Philly’s Largest Oyster Festival, ShuckFest is Back Featuring a Dozen of the Area’s Best Oysters Companies

Oyster House is bringing back its annual oyster festival and shucking competition, ShuckFest, for another installment on Sunday, June 2nd from noon to 3:30 p.m. at Liberty Point (211 S Christopher Columbus Blvd.) , located at the Independence Seaport Museum on Penn’s Landing, overlooking the Delaware River.

ShuckFest is Philadelphia’s largest oyster festival which features the area’s best regional oysters and farms while celebrating the local oyster industry.

Entry into ShuckFest includes a meet-and-greet and tastings from 12 local New Jersey-based oyster growers, oyster shucking tutorials from experts, a craft table for children to create personalized jewelry from oyster shells, live music throughout the event from Gypsy Wisdom, and the event’s culminating oyster shucking competition. Guests can also purchase additional food and drinks from Liberty Point. Tickets for ShuckFest cost $80 apiece, and go live on April 24that noon on Oyster House’s website. Attendees must purchase tickets in advance. Children under 15 who accompany adults can enter for free. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit two local environmental non-profits: Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Inc. and The Jetty Rock Foundation. The event takes place rain or shine.

The oyster shucking competition will feature a dozen local seafood industry professionals competing for a grand cash prize. Competitors will be graded on speed and accuracy by the judging panel, which includes Binh Nguyen of Visit Philly, Margaret Eby of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Chef Eli Kulp of the Delicious City Philly Podcast. Penalties will be given for presentation fouls such as broken shells, cut oysters, or not fully detaching the oysters from their shells.

“We expanded ShuckFest last year to make it a huge Sunday event at one of the biggest venues in Philadelphia, and we’re excited to make it even better this year,” said Mink. “We’ve tapped three amazing people who promote and cover the city’s incredible restaurant scene to judge the competition, and we’re looking forward to another incredible event with some new and returning oyster farmers from New Jersey, and with our partners at Liberty Point.”

Via Mike Prince